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Monthly Archives: October 2013

When I open my Bible, I read you LOVE me and have loved me since the beginning of time. It tells me that you love me so much, you died for me just so I would have the choice of accepting or rejecting you. This fact alone is mind blowing! What kind of love is this that would count a human, not yet born, as worthy?

I have known you and loved you since I was a teenager. As a teenager I promised to give you my whole being, my heart and my soul. In turn you promised to guide me, lead me, walk with me and prepare a home for me in heaven. We have a wonderfully, amazing and loving relationship.

There is nothing in my life that is more important to me than you. My faith is my number one priority. In my faith it is important to me to be honest, transparent and authentic.

You and I have had long conversations. You have whispered things in my ear … You have quickened things deep in my soul and you have shared things with me during times of prayer that I could not have known otherwise. You have given me the words to say to a perfect stranger who needed encouragement and you have helped me love friends on a deeper level and meet needs I did not even know existed.

A few of the things I have done as a direct result of our wonderful, loving relationship are feed the hungry, give to the poor, and provide for the orphans. I have introduced people to you. Some have welcomed you and some have not. I have held the hand of dying friends and prayed with them as they took their final breath. I have taken in a child that had no safe place to rest and loved him as my own. I have paid the rent of strangers and the doctor bills of friends. I have gotten up in the middle of the night to be with a friend when a pet was dying. I have prayed with individuals whose spouses were abusing them and help them find the courage, through you, to leave a life of fear. I have sung in the church choir. I have taught Sunday school. I have participated in church plays, as well as church ministries, etc. As you already know, I am not making this list for my own praise, I am merely listing examples of things done, actions taken, not in my human flesh, but because your love and grace towards me is so amazing that I cannot contain it or keep it to myself.

I try very hard to live by your example and be a reflection of you to my own little world, as well as the world at large. I fail on a regular basis, but each time you lovingly pick me up, tell me you love me and encourage me to keep moving forward. But to be honest some of my brothers and sisters in Christ are making it very hard for me to carry on, have hope and share your name and love with others.

You see, all of this comes crashing down around me and is uttered as worthless garbage rather than heartfelt ministry by the vast majority of my Christian brothers and sisters when we discuss the fact I am gay. Upon learning this one fact about me, I become a misfit, an outsider, and a deceiver. Nothing more than a preying wolf among sheep.

Some automatically exclude me from places I was once welcome. No longer am I allowed to lead. Minister. Pray openly for others. The option of church membership is taken off the table entirely.

Others say I can attend church and tithe, but not be intimately involved in any ministry or outreach until I am “saved”. Which I sincerely thought was a relationship you and I entered into when I was a teenager.

But the really confusing part for me is some of these very people who say with conviction I am going to hell, still want to partake of my kindness and love. They call me to pray for their needs. Still request my money for their causes. Still eat food I have prepared at my table. Some will even go so far as to say I am very much like you, but yet they have no doubt, and make no bones about the fact I am going directly to hell.

Jesus, I have never claimed to be a theologian. I have spent hours in your word, in prayer, getting to know you better and more intimately. But as far as Greek or Hebrew goes, as far as what words originally meant I do not know. I am weary of “fundamentalist” theology, “mainstream” theology, “gay” theology, “feminist” theology, “left” theology, “right” theology or any other theology that does not bear your name and your name only.

The deepest desire of my heart is to know you better and more intimately. I want to be a richer, more accurate reflection of you. I want to share your goodness, love and grace with a hurting and deeply wounded world. Can you help me do that?

I would like to end this letter by asking you for your help. Please give me the strength, courage and wisdom to listen for your voice. The voice I have learned intimately over the years. Please give me the grace to love those who would attempt to rip you from my life and cast doubt on the validity of our relationship. Give me compassion for those who tell me you hate me and lie to me about my very soul. In essence, help me be more like you with every breath I take. I don’t need the road to be easy, I just need the strength to walk it.

You know people are funny. Not so much in the ha-ha, belly laugh way … but from my experience, more so in a quirky, ironic way. People, humans in general, love to be right about something. Some are even driven to be right at all costs. Which seems odd to me, because most people focus only on one side of the coin … the side that promotes their cause, their reason, their belief, their logic.

As we sit here in the 21st century people often wonder, how in the world Adolf Hitler successfully killed millions of people, and millions more sat by and did nothing. The truth is frighteningly simple. Knowing the Bible is the most revered book in most cultures, he became familiar with the Bible. He held his Bible close to his chest and spouted verses that promoted his cause and ideology. It mattered not to him if the verses where in context or not. It matter not to him if he got to know the author of the Bible. It mattered not to him if he was wrongly interpreting the Bible. He was not seeking a relationship; his primary goal was to be right at all costs. In essence, he wrapped a lie in the dressing of the Bible and people believed it. After all who can argue with God?

… people often wonder how men ever justified owning another human being. The truth is frighteningly simple. They found support for their belief between the covers of their Bibles. They held their Bible close to their chests and spouted verses that promoted their position. It mattered not to them if the verses where in context or not. In essence they wrapped a lie in the dressing of the Bible and people believed it. After all who can argue with God?

… people often wonder how males ever believed and treated females as second class citizens. How females were no more than property for many years. Of course they were more “valuable” property than slaves, but property nonetheless. The truth is frighteningly simple. They found support for their belief between the covers of their Bibles. They held their Bible close to their chests and spouted verses that promoted their position. It mattered not to them if the verses where in context or not. In essence they wrapped a lie in the dressing of the Bible and people believed it. After all who can argue with God?

… people often wonder how in the world we could have ever believed that one race was superior to another. How could white people believe and promote they are superior to other races? The truth is frighteningly simple. They found support for their belief between the covers of their Bibles. They held their Bible close to their chests and spouted verses that promoted their position. It mattered not to them if the verses where in context or not. In essence they wrapped a lie in the dressing of the Bible and people believed it. After all who can argue with God?

This list is endless. Which poses a critical question. What is it now, this very day, in your individual life, or our churches collective lives that we are promoting, protesting or betting our lives and the lives of others that we are right about? What is it we are pointing a finger to in the scripture as an absolute truth, which we could be interpreting incorrectly, thus creating a lie in the dressing of the Bible? What topic, issue, belief is it that we could, through interpretation which is not clear, be putting words in God’s mouth?

Christians and the church need to remember that following Christ is not about being RIGHT … The Word of God is not something which to brow beat an individual or group of individuals. The Word of God is a love story of how God loves us so much Christ died for us. The church, as well as individual Christians, need to learn to error on the side of mercy and love. Christ has called us to be the BIGGER people … the more LOVING people. We cannot go after groups of people aggressively and be surprised when they are not cordial and loving back. It is the GOODNESS of God that leads mankind to repentance, not the hostile, sign holding, protesting, yelling group of self-righteous so called Christians.

Am I saying when there is injustice or wrongs being committed we need to become a door mat. ABSOLUTELY. NOT. What I am saying is we need to temper our moves and behaviors with love, mercy and grace; which is exactly what Christ did for every single person ever born or ever to be born. By doing so He led by example and set the standard of how we should interact with His children.

As we sit here in the 21st century, it is time we began following His example … and by doing so lives will be revolutionized forever.

31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself.34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Romans 8:31-34

I often wonder why so many Christians struggle in their Christian walk. Why they feel guilty, ashamed and inadequate when they read the Bible? I believe part of the answer can be found in the fact that many Christians, although well intentioned, have formed a type of belief system that integrates the Old Testament law and the New Testament Covenant via Jesus death and resurrection. By doing so they maintain there are requirements to remain in God’s favor.

Part of me gets this train of thought. In fact I lived this way for more years than I would like to admit. It is a desperate, empty way to live. Why, because no one can be “on” all the time. It is impossible to do, say and behave in a right manner all the time. In essence it is impossible to live a mistake free life. Do we strive for perfection, yes; do we strive for excellence, yes; do we always succeed, unfortunately no.

In the United States, we live in a performance based society. In the US the more successfully a person is; the more “value points” that person is given. I do not in any way want to disrespect people who have experienced great accomplishments. People who have sacrifice for their sport, art form, etc. But I want to be clear, in the spiritual realm there is no better than, there is no favorite. There is only unconditional love.

We, as humans often look at God through human eyes; assigning Him human feelings and emotions. Since we are human and this is all we know, it is only normal we would do this. However, God is not human, and more importantly we are not God.

Many perceive God measures mankind in the same manner we do. You attend church regularly you earn 5 points. You chose not to go to Sunday school you lose a point. You get a speeding ticket you lose 4 more points, but you participated in the church outreach so you earned 5 points. But you lost your temper so you subtract 2 points. I still have 3 points. Whew, as long as I am in the black I am okay.

God has one measuring stick with only one line on it. God’s standard is Jesus Christ. The standard for God is have we as humans accepted His Son Jesus Christ and his substitutionary work on the cross for us. To prove this point let me ask you a question. Were you saved by a) observing the law and keeping a certain set of rules or b) by believing what you heard about Jesus Christ? Secondly, do expect you will become more like Christ throughout your life a) by human effort or b) by the leading of the Holy Spirit?

The answers to both questions are B. Why is the answer B, primarily because if the answer was A there would have been no need for Jesus Christ to die on the cross. If salvation could be achieved without His death, then His death was pointless.

I believe so many of us have difficulty accepting this because unconditional love is very foreign to us. The majority of humans are used to love being attached, to a greater or lesser degree, to performance. But God says here is my Grace and no performance is needed. The beauty of this is unconditional love and grace allows us to leave human effort behind. It allows us be ourselves. In being ourselves, with no hidden agenda, no secrets, no shame, we are more open to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

As hard as it is to accept and believe, the bottom line is God loves each and every one of us relentlessly, compassionately and inexhaustibly. There is absolutely nothing we can do that will cause God to love us more and conversely there is nothing we can do to cause God to love us less. Nothing.